*Noir voice* Another dead body on a dimly lit city street? And I was beginning to think this city was boring. Evan Derrick, creative director of Van Ryder Games, joins the show to talk about the role of a creative director as well as plug a new game on Kickstarter right now: Detective: City of Angels. This game puts players in a 1940s LA noir world where there are crimes to be solved, but trust is hard to come by. The game is narratively driven and features a chisel-player whose job it is to stall misdirect and stall the detectives. The incredibly talented Vincent Dutrait provides beautiful artwork for the game.

Richard Breese, designer of the Key series, Aladdin's Dragons, Reef Encounter, and more, joined me to talk about the Key Series of games. We focused on the origin of the series (thanks Mr. Keywood) and how the series changed over time. We also discussed where the series might go in the future (Keyper!).

Shari Spiro, the owner of Ad Magic, joins the show to talk about holograms and intellectual property security in the board game industry. Ad Magic created a 3D photopolymer hologram label to attach to each of their games in an effort to combat board game piracy overseas. Shari shares the genesis of this idea as well as some tidbits about her previous job with holograms. This was a wonderful interview, and Shari opens up about all sorts of topics from this photopolymer product to Sparkle Kitty.

JR Honeycutt, developer and designer extraordinaire, joins me on the show to discuss what a developer does for a designer and how one contributes so vitally to the finished product. He also talks about his own journey into the role that he has landed in with Restoration Games. We finish up with a discussion of what makes a legacy game.

I think this interview is incredibly interesting because developers are some of the silent heroes of the board game industry. Without them board games might not be as stellar as they have become.

Fernanda Suarez, artist for games such as Dead of Winter, Ashes, and Century Spice Road, joined me to talk about how she got into board game art and what it is like to be an artist in such an industry. We discussed how she dealt with large scale art projects that require tight deadlines. Fernanda is working on her own personal project about Disney Princesses. You can see more of her work at FernandaSuarez.carbonmade.com.

Jouni Jussila, one of the creators of Dized, joined the show all the way from Finland to talk about his company's revolutionary board game application that attempts to teach people how to play games without ever needing to read the rulebook. The app offers tutorials for teaching the games, graphics licensed from the creators of the games, and a lot more. Currently, there are only a few games available, but Jouni plans to bring more games to Dized over the next year or so. The company is launching an IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds to produce the app, which they plan to release in 2018. This has the potential to be a seriously awesome companion to any board gamer's collection, and it fits on his or her smart phone or tablet. They plan to offer the app free of charge with other features unlocked through a subscription service.

Cody Miller, designer of Xia, joined the show to discuss his first game ever. We discussed the challenges of designing a sandbox game where there are endless possibilities for players. Cody also has an expansion that debuted recently that added more things for the players to do without complicating things. Cody discussed how he worked with his co-designer Ira on the expansion Xia: Embers of the Forsaken Star.

Xia is a beautifully crafted board that can be picked up from Far Off Games website.

Nicole Kline and Anthony Amato joined the show to talk about their game Lazer Ryderz, a space race right out of an 80s Saturday morning cartoon. We discussed the origins of the game as well as the gorgeous art direction of the box. One topic of particular interest that came up was the care that designers put into the amount of times players are required to handle the pieces. I think this is the mark of skillful designers. Enjoy the episode.

Isaac Shalev, game designer, one of the hosts of On Board Games, and friend, joined the show to talk about his game Seikatsu that he co-designed with Matt Loomis. We discuss the Japanese theme, creation of Seikatsu, and the partnership of Shalev and Loomis. Seikatsu is a game debuting at GenCon from IDW games. It has a zen-like feel of creating a beautiful garden space filled with birds and fish. This is a game to keep an eye out for.

Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, joins the show to discuss his upcoming legacy game Charterstone. This game is intriguing for a number of different reasons. This is one of the few soon-to-be published legacy games that does not feature the name Rob Daviau. Charterstone is a worker placement style game that is not built off of an existing I.P. like Pandemic or Risk. When players finish the story campaign, they will have a fully functional game that they can continue playing, which will be similar but very different from the next copy of Charterstone. Finally, Jamey, known to so many as a guru of Kickstarter, chose not to crowd fund this game (or take pre-orders on his site).

Jamey and I discussed why he chose to design a legacy game, what defines a legacy game, and what he learned through the process of creating something like this.

If you are looking forward to Charterstone, please check out Stonemaier.com for information about when this game is available at retail.

On Who, What, Why? we discuss game design with game designers and try to learn more about the game design process from the people who design games. Each episode we interview a designer of card games, board games, role playing games, or video games. We have both mainstream and independent developers as guests.